August 2024 MoveOn Member Newsletter
In This Issue
Our 2024 election program, restoring abortion access, protecting LGBTQ+ youth, and more!
A message from Rahna Epting, MoveOn’s Executive Director
It is one of my greatest joys as MoveOn’s executive director to speak to you and your fellow MoveOn members. I am inspired by your commitment to building a better future—one rally, phone call, donation, and petition signature at a time. You have shown, time and again, that you care about your families, communities, and future generations. I am honored to co-create a more just country with you—one where we all can thrive.
I hope that you feel inspired as you read this newsletter. Every accomplishment outlined demonstrates the incredible progress you fuel as one of MoveOn’s most dedicated supporters. Together, we will advance progressive victories in this critical election year and beyond.
MoveOn’s Member-Powered 2024 Election Program
MoveOn’s greatest strength is the grassroots people power of millions of MoveOn members. In this crucial election year, when our rights and freedoms are threatened more than ever by MAGA Republicans, MoveOn members are leading the charge to victory in November by getting out the vote early—and with great impact.
MoveOn’s analytics team has identified 1.5 million voters who live in key states and districts and who lean Democratic but may not vote consistently. MoveOn members are reaching out to these “surge” voters in three different ways: sending postcards, making phone calls, and knocking on their doors.
Members are engaging their friends, families, and communities in this effort by inviting them to informative and fun election parties. These parties are themed around long-term and rapid-response issues, including abortion rights, Pride Month, and Trump’s conviction. In just a few months, MoveOn members have hosted almost 550 parties, mailed 73,093 postcards, and called 342,170 voters.
To amplify our member-driven voter contact program, MoveOn is implementing paid communications and traditional rapid-response campaigning. That includes a powerful digital advertising campaign, leveraging a team of micro-influencers along with MoveOn’s own social media reach, and sharing MoveOn members’ meaningful and persuasive stories about why the election matters to them.
MoveOn’s supercharged 2024 election program is strategically designed to secure the presidency and a Democratic trifecta and to protect democracy from Trump and MAGA Republicans.
MoveOn members have chosen to endorse close to 30 progressive candidates for Congress so far this year. Our members decide which candidates will be endorsed by MoveOn by responding to surveys. MoveOn will endorse a candidate only if the majority of members in their district approve the endorsement.
In May, MoveOn members in Maryland endorsed Angela Alsobrooks in a crucial race to maintain the Democratic majority in the Senate. Alsobrooks reports that she is “glad to have MoveOn and its strong base of grassroots members alongside me in this fight.” Other endorsements include Representative Andy Kim in his Senate bid in New Jersey and Representative Summer Lee in her reelection bid in Pennsylvania.
For more than 25 years, MoveOn members have led the way—mobilizing in key moments and staying committed to long-term fights. We’ve taken on great challenges before and won. Together, we can do it again now.
Restoring Abortion Access
MoveOn members are fighting to stop bans and restore access to abortion. Two summers ago, the Trump-packed Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark case protecting abortion rights in the United States. Right-wing antiabortion laws have subsequently been passed in state after state. These efforts to ban abortion and criminalize those who seek and provide it are causing great harm to people across our nation.
MoveOn members urged Congress to vote for the Right to Contraception Act, a bill to codify the constitutional right to access contraception. In May, MoveOn members hosted more than 100 abortion-rights-themed election parties across the country.
Abortion is one of the cornerstone issues of MoveOn’s electoral campaign, and we’re working to vote out antiabortion extremists in the 2024 elections. One in eight voters of all ages say that abortion is the most important issue to them. Research shows that these voters are disproportionately Black voters, Democratic voters, women voters, and the youngest voting bloc—voters ages 18 to 29. MoveOn is helping to motivate voters, convince them that their vote matters, and get them to the polls to elect leaders who will protect our freedom to make decisions about our futures and our right to reproductive care.
Trump is Not Above the Law
MoveOn members have long been on the front lines of holding Donald Trump accountable. In 2017, we protested his executive order banning people from six Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States. We denounced him in 2018 for separating migrant children from their families, in 2020 for his disastrous coronavirus response, and in 2021 for fueling the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
In the last 12 months, more than half a million MoveOn members signed the petition urging secretaries of state, state officials, and Congress to disqualify Trump from holding public office, under the Constitution’s 14th Amendment. After Trump was convicted of 34 felonies in New York, MoveOn members began calling for a fair and just sentence that reflects the seriousness of his crimes. More than 120,000 MoveOn members ordered a sticker reminding voters that no one is above the law in the aftermath of his conviction—coming together to show that Trump must be held accountable and not reelected in November.
Hundreds of thousands of MoveOn members signed petitions demanding trials and verdicts before Election Day. This June, MoveOn ran a full-page ad in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution targeting the Georgia Court of Appeals after continuous delays to Trump’s trial in Georgia to convey MoveOn members’ demand that the courts overseeing Trump’s criminal trials and appeals stop the delays, because voters deserve to know a full accounting of his crimes before Election Day. MoveOn is amplifying our members’ voices through social media and press engagement.
Together, we’re working to keep Trump out of the White House by making sure that voters across the country know that he has been found guilty—and that they learn what’s on his despicable agenda if he wins a second term.
“When I first heard about MoveOn, it just made sense to me that this was work that needed to be done—and supported. I’ve been a MoveOn member for more than 20 years and have felt very good about the priorities and strategies that MoveOn has taken. Even the name MoveOn. One of its major strengths is that it does move on, it doesn’t stay stuck. So many organizations are doing the same thing year after year. MoveOn amazes me because we don’t. We move on!”
– Bob R., MoveOn member and supporter
Sign Up to be a 2024 Vote Mobilizer
Help to defend democracy and win in November by joining the Vote Mobilizer community! The MoveOn team will train you to bring your community together and reach out to voters. As a volunteer election program leader, you’ll drive voter contact efforts in your area and across the United States—and you’ll meet other MoveOn members who share your commitment to fighting for progress. Sign up at MoveOn.org/VoteMobilizer.
Protect LGBTQ+ Youth
Generation Rainbow was created by MoveOn as an online space for queer folks and allies to take action against Republican attacks that seek to erase LGBTQ+ people. MAGA Republicans have increased their bigoted attacks on LGBTQ+ rights—with more than 500 antigay and antitransgender laws introduced in states and in Congress this year alone. From bathroom bans to book bans to drag bans, they’ve scapegoated, bullied, and marginalized the LGBTQ+ community, particularly transgender folks. Together, we will vote them out and elect leaders who will protect the inherent human rights of all people. Learn more, take action, and check out the Pride merch collection at MoveOn.org/GenerationRainbow.
“As an organizer with MoveOn, I have been so inspired by the enthusiasm and compassion of members organizing during Pride Month to defend equality within the LGBTQ+ community and beyond. MoveOn members are excited to take action.
Kathie in Beaverton, Oregon, is one of these amazing MoveOn members! She hosted an incredible phone-banking event, bringing together 12 volunteers to speak to voters. They had more than 200 conversations!
This is the activism we need in 2024 to counter hate and those who divide our country, and to defeat Donald Trump.”
–Christian P., Pacific Coast Field Organizer
MoveOn members are the driving force behind our impact. This newsletter celebrates the remarkable progress your generosity has powered.
Thank you for all you do to protect democracy and lead the resistance against the radical right. With your support, together we are creating a better future, rooted in equality, sustainability, justice, and love.